More defections likely? Dr Marri of Moscow defects to Pakistan, blasts India

Moscow-based Dr Jumma Marri, who was always suspect in Baloch eyes because of the betrayal of the Baloch cause by his father Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani, 85, one of the main guerrilla leaders during the the 1973-77,  has come out openly in support of Pakistan, saying Baloch interests are best served by aligning themselves with Islamabad.

Dr Marri had joined the Pakistani community to celebrate “Pakistan Solidarity Day” at their embassy in Moscow under the slogan “United we stand, Divided we fall”.

“Nobody paid anything,” Dr Marri said, when he was asked by this correspondent about the change in his loyalty. He also said he will invite Cardiff-based Baloch exiled leader Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud to his organization. “I am counting on you. You will not regret,” he told this writer even after being told I do not care to piss on Pakistan as an American.

In line with ISI propaganda, Dr Marri blamed India for the troubles in Balochistan and announced launching of the Overseas Pakistanis Baloch Community.

Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani in his hey days. Picture from In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch
Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, written by Selig S. Harrison. 

Dr Marri claimed he was the one who designed the flag of a free Balochistan. According to a Pakistani newspaper report, the event reached “its climax when Dr. Jumma Khan Marri, who has lived  in self-exile in Moscow for the last two decades. announced his dissociation from Baloch independence movement."

During his speech, he announced: He along with his supporters were disassociating from Baloch independence movement; launch of an organization named  “Overseas Pakistani Baloch Community” to challenge the ongoing free Balochistan movement abroad. He said the main goal of his organization is to confront and expose the evil designs of Brahamdagh Bugti, Hyrbyair Marri and Mehran Marri at all forums abroad.

He vowed to bring back all misguided and innocent Baloch residing abroad on political asylum to mainstream politics in Balochistan and resolve their problems by peaceful dialogue.

He vowed to bring back all misguided and innocent Baloch residing abroad on political asylum to mainstream politics in Balochistan and resolve their problems by peaceful dialogue.

Dr Marri said Brahamdagh Bugti, Hyrbyar Marri and Mehran Marri put Baloch nation in serious harms way when they applied for Indian nationality and laid flowers on Gandhi’s statue in Geneva. He accused them of being involved in terrorism on the behest of India and said he decided to confront their evil designs.

Dr Marri is now himself a Russian citizen and it is not clear if his defection to Pakistan is part of the Russian strategy to join hands with China over the key port of Gwadar. Pakistani strategists like Mushahid Husaid Syed have longed worked on an alliance between Pakistan, Iran, Russia and China to counter balance India and the US.

Few years back, according to Vancouver-based Baloch woman activist Prof Naela Quadri, Dr Marri’s father octogenarian Ramkhani had plans to revive the insurgency and had allegedly gone to Dubai in the hope of seeking Indian support for his plans. However, after being cold shouldered by New Delhi he returned back to Pakistan and began working for the army guys in full earnest.

Ramkhani broke ranks with the late Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri who is said to have received massive support from the USSR, Afghanistan, India and even Cuba when he was living in exile in Afghanistan for more than a decade in the 1980s. Many Balochistan news pundits think the uncaring attitude of India may lead to more defections of Baloch freedom activists to the Pakistan camp in the near future.

Many Balochistan news pundits think the uncaring attitude of India may lead to more defections of Baloch freedom activists to the Pakistan camp in the near future.

Dr Marri views from March last year

Last year, Dr Marii after years of silence distanced himself from the politics of betrayal of his father and reiterated he will forever remain a soldier for the freedom of Balochistan.He had said at the time, “I neither support my father nor agree with his politics. Our ideologies differ now, my idea and thoughts are with free Balochistan movement.” 

Dr Marri penned his thoughts and posted it on Facebook in response to those who “oppose me and try to taunt me” as his father had been helping the same army that he bravely fought during the 1973-77 uprising as a right hand man of the late Godfather of Baloch nationalism Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri.

Picture that Dr Jumma Marri had posted last year distancing himself from the politics of betrayal of his dad Mir Hazar Khan

Ramkhani. Eleven months later he jumps into his dad's bandwagon.

The Marris have been known throughout history for defying the British plans in Balochistan. “My ancestors fought all the time against Baloch enemies, fought not for fame nor money just fought to protect what they believed was right to fight and die for,” he said.

Dr Marri said the Marris lost everything in 1970s during the fourth military operation conducted by Pakistani army in Balochistan-- the most direct military intervention with the help of Iran and US. He pointed out that in the Marri area Pakistan sent 80,000 troops fully equipped with lethal weapons. He said Pakistan dispatched elite army units in the Marri area with direct US air surveillance and intelligence gathering in favor of Pakistan, "since Islamabad filled the ears of Washington that it was all a Soviet instigated uprising.”

Recalling the geopolitics of that time, Dr Marri said, “On the other hand Iran was afraid that this freedom war might spill into Iranian controlled Seistan o Balochistan and make things worse for the already weak and very unpopular government of then Reza Shah Pehlavi, the Iranians sent in huge amount of dollars, fighter jets and cobra helicopters to fight the Baloch freedom fighters.”

“On the other hand Iran was afraid that this freedom war might spill into Iranian controlled Seistan o Balochistan and make things worse for the already weak and very unpopular government of then Reza Shah Pehlavi, the Iranians sent in huge amount of dollars, fighter jets and cobra helicopters to fight the Baloch freedom fighters.”

That war ended only after Pakistani got a bleeding nose with 9,000 soldiers killed and 25,000 wounded in three years of bloody fight in Marri hills and “the Pakistani army had no choice but to withdraw because Pakistan could not sustain the cost of war which ran in millions of dollars every month.”

He regretted that Baloch leaders at the time were not sharp enough and they lost the God-given historical opportunity to get a free and independent Balochistan, when the Soviets offered them freedom in 1980s after their intervention in Afghanistan. But the Baloch leaders could not take the offer. It is believed that deceased nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri refused the Soviet offer for reasons best known to him. Nawab Marri’s two sons Hyrbyair Marri and Mehran Marri, though estranged with one another, are still part of the Balochistan liberation movement.

Dr Jumma Marri said after Afghanistan’s democratic government was overrun by ISI supported Taliban, the Baloch had no choice but to return back to Balochistan, “already divided and weak and the lure of Pakistani Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) divided them even further."

He said his dad Mir Ramkhani before returning back to Balochistan made a four month long visit to India to seek Indian help to continue their struggle, but the Indians said they do not need an independent Balochistan but were only interested in quid pro quid to counter Pakistani terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. 

He said a disheartened Mir Ramkhani returned to Balochistan and “having no party of his own he had was quickly taken by the M.I. and army generals under their wings, the army following the British methods of honoring the Baloch “brainwashed the old man with praises that how you fought against us it was something unbelievable.”

Dr Marri said the army was afraid that Mir Ramkhani might return to his old ways of 70s, so they tightened their grip around him and made things completely under their control so much so he could not even move around Kohlu without military eyes on him. “Everything was under army control and still are,” he lamented.

Dr Marri said he thinks his dad was not happy with the situation, had no choices, but to carry on with this shameless situation under what Baloch have to live. “The army still doesn’t trust the guy and his home was recently searched for illegal weapons and most weapons were taken away,” he said.

Dr Marri added, “Its a cat and mouse situation with every Baloch today in occupied Balochistan, but what saddens me most is that there is no way out,” adding, “Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani once the proud chairman of Balochistan People’s liberation front (BPLF) is today surrounded by Punjabi occupying army but not by BPLF.” Dr Marri also posted pictures of his dad from the past and the present.

“Now he (Mir Ramkhani) is controlled my M.I. and manipulated by Jangyz Marri, so called Nawab Marri appointed by the army and few waderas, including Mir Hazar Khan Rankhani.” He lamented that his dad has unfortunately joined the wrong company of looters of Baloch wealth like Mahavat Khan Marri of the MI and Jangyz Marri also of the ISI. “He is doing wrong and I do not agree with him.”

“Now he (Mir Ramkhani) is controlled my M.I. and manipulated by Jangyz Marri, so called Nawab Marri appointed by the army and few waderas, including Mir Hazar Khan Rankhani.” He lamented that his dad has unfortunately joined the wrong company of looters of Baloch wealth like Mahavat Khan Marri of the MI and Jangyz Marri also of the ISI. “He is doing wrong and I do not agree with him.”

Jangyz Marri, now a minister in the Balochistan government, is one of the most corrupt politicians in Balochistan history. The late Nawab Marri had himself called Jangyz Marri as a son of the ISI and rejected him as the chief of the Marri tribe, instead naming his most loving and youngest son Mehran Marri to the position of chief of the Marri tribe and his political successor as well.

Though unconfirmed, Dr Marri is believed to be romantically tied with a Western woman these days. Dr Jumma Marri is the second notable from the once militant Marri tribe to change loyalty to Pakistan in less than five months now. Earlier, Nawab Gazzain Marri, son Baloch militancy Godfather the late Nawab Marri, who is a former home minister of Balochistan and brother-in-law of former chief minister Nawab Zulfikar Ali Magsi ended his two decades in exile and returned to Pakistan.